Does AI threaten the future of Google Search?

Last year, Google Search and other web-based Google properties, which span many countries and languages, accounted for $149 billion in revenues. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 22 December 2022
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Does AI threaten the future of Google Search?

  • Some experts believe emerging technology such as ChatGPT and Noor could challenge Google’s dominance
  • The latest AI bots certainly have the potential to revolutionize web searches but, for now at east, they have limitations

LONDON: Google Search is in peril, some people believe. The ubiquitous search engine, which has been the gateway to the internet for billions of people worldwide for the past two decades, faces “existential threats,” they say, that are forcing parent company Alphabet’s management to declare a “code red.”

“Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption,” Paul Buchheit, a Gmail developer wrote in a message posted on Twitter this month. “(Artificial Intelligence) will eliminate the search engine result page, which is where they make most of their money.”

Buchheit continued by predicting that AI could transform and replace the internet-search industry in much the same way the way Google effectively destroyed the formerly successful Yellow Pages model of printed telephone directories of businesses, which had thrived for many decades.

AI and chatbot services such as ChatGPT are already beginning to revolutionize the way people carry out research online by providing users with an unprecedented level of convenience and speed.

Unlike traditional search engines, which rely on keyword-matching to provide results, AI chatbots use advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to understand the deeper intent behind a user’s query.

As a result, ChatGPT is capable of responding to more complex requests, building simple codes, working out difficult issues, and chatting in a relatively human-like manner. Contrast this with Google, which can only provides users with the links and tools they need to carry out detailed research themselves.

Because the results are shown in real time and more accurately reflect what is actually being asked, natural language processing services such as ChatGPT provide access to all the information users require, through a conversational AI interface, in a fraction of the time it would take them to manually search for it.

In other words, as many experts have been quick to point out, ChatGPT performs many similar tasks to Google — only better.

Google is one of several businesses, research facilities and experts who have contributed to the development of ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. It is a groundbreaking collaborative project spearheaded by a research lab called OpenAI, which is also behind DALL-E, an AI-powered system that generates images from natural language descriptions provided by a user.

Although Google’s own search engine already exploits the power of AI in an effort to enhance the service it provides and deliver more relevant results to users, some experts believe the tech giant might struggle to compete with the newer, smaller companies developing these AI chatbots, because of the many ways the technology could hurt its existing business model.

In April, the Technology Innovation Institute, a cutting-edge research hub in Abu Dhabi, unveiled a service similar to ChatGPT, called Noor. The biggest Arabic-language natural language processing model to date, it is intended to provide the Arab region with a competitive edge in the field, given that technologies such as chatbots, market intelligence, and machine translation traditionally have tended to significantly favor English- and Chinese-language markets.

Last year, Google Search and other web-based Google properties, which span many countries and languages, accounted for $149 billion in revenues. The disruptive power of services such as ChatGPT and Noor therefore could represent a significant blow to Google’s parent company Alphabet and its business model.

“The potential for something like OpenAI’s ChatGPT to eventually supplant a search engine like Google isn’t a new idea but this delivery of OpenAI’s underlying technology is the closest approximation yet to how that would actually work in a fully fleshed out system, and it should have Google scared,” TechCrunch US managing editor Darrell Etherington wrote this month.

However, it is still early days and, as Jacob Carpenter points out, “the idea of upstart AI firms supplanting Google feels premature” given Alphabet can call on its significant resources to help see off any potential competition.

ChatGPT, described as the most advanced AI chatbot in the market, is available in several regions and supports a variety of languages, including Arabic. However, despite the enormous advances it undoubtedly represents, limitations remain.

In its current form, ChatGPT is unable to access the internet or other external sources of information, which means it cannot respond to or provide geo-based recommendations.

Moreover, the training data for its model only goes up to 2021, so the program often offers incorrect or biased answers, which means the service, at least for now, is not a reliable source of information.

Although the buzz generated by ChatGPT and Noor is likely to attract users and investors, which will help the technology to further develop, significant skepticism remains as to whether such AI chatbots will ever be able to do to Google Search what Google Search did to Yellow Pages.

For all the lofty claims from some experts about the potential of advanced-language models — and although it is important to recognize that they do offer distinct advantages, enhanced abilities and a different user experience to existing Google services that has the potential to revolutionize the way we search for things on the web — it is also important to be aware that even the developers of ChatGPT have said the technology is “not a direct competitor to Google Search and is not likely to replace it.”


BBC journalists detained at gunpoint in southern Syria

Updated 05 June 2025
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BBC journalists detained at gunpoint in southern Syria

  • BBC sent complaint to Israeli military about the incident

LONDON: Israeli Defense Forces detained, blindfolded, tied up and strip-searched at gunpoint seven members of a BBC Arabic crew as they approached the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a BBC journalist said on Thursday. 

Feras Kilani, a British special correspondent for BBC Arabic, said he was among the team detained for seven hours at a checkpoint near the barrier of Quneitra city, located within the buffer zone between Syria and Israel.

“A minute after we started filming in the area, a white car approached from the other side of the checkpoint. Four Israeli soldiers got out of the car and surrounded us. They pointed their rifles at our heads and ordered us to place the camera on the side of the road,” wrote Kilani in a BBC article.

The crew’s phones and laptops were inspected, with some files deleted, and their vehicle was thoroughly searched as they were led into a room, tied up and blindfolded.

Kilani’s team included two Iraqi BBC staff members and four Syrians, among them three freelancers and a cameraman.

“I pleaded to the officer to release them, and he promised to do so after the interrogations. They were taken one by one to the same room for strip search and questioning.”

Kilani said the team was also threatened before their release in the evening: “The officer threatened us with worse consequences if we approached the frontier from the Syrian side again and said that they know everything about us and would track us down if any hidden or un-deleted photo was ever published.”

In a statement, the BBC said it had filed a complaint with the Israeli military over the incident but had yet to receive a response.

“The BBC strongly objects to the treatment of our staff and freelancers in this way. Despite making clear to the soldiers on multiple occasions they were working for the BBC, the behavior they were subjected to is wholly unacceptable,” the broadcaster said. 


YouTube educator says she is ready to risk career for Gaza’s children

Updated 05 June 2025
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YouTube educator says she is ready to risk career for Gaza’s children

  • Ms Rachel says personal encounters with Palestinian families compel her to act

LONDON: American children’s educator and YouTuber Rachel Griffin Accurso, known globally as Ms Rachel, has said she is willing to jeopardize her career to advocate for Palestinian children suffering under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.

Ms Rachel said she had been targeted by online campaigns and faced calls for government investigation after voicing support for children affected by war in Gaza and elsewhere.

Despite growing criticism from some pro-Israel groups and conservative media, she said she remained defiant in a recent interview with WBUR, a Boston-based public radio station.

She said: “I would risk everything — and I will risk my career over and over to stand up for children. It’s all about the kids for me. I wouldn’t be Ms Rachel if I didn’t deeply care about all kids.”

Her comments came as humanitarian agencies continue to sound the alarm over conditions in Gaza, where more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the UN has warned that the enclave faces imminent famine.

The YouTube star said a recent meeting with Palestinian mothers, whose children remain trapped in Gaza, had had a profound effect on her. She said: “When you sit with a mother who’s FaceTiming her boys in Gaza who don’t have food, and you see that anguish, you ask yourself: What more can I do?”

Ms Rachel recently published about her encounter with Rahaf, 3, a double amputee from Gaza who was evacuated for medical treatment in the US by the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Rahaf’s story, including her wish to return to school and stand while praying, has been shared by Ms Rachel on her social media platforms, alongside the educator’s advocacy for children in Gaza.

Ms Rachel has faced accusations of bias, including a call by a pro-Israel organization urging the US attorney general to investigate her messaging. She acknowledged the pressure, but insisted her mission remains unchanged.

She said: “It’s painful, but I know who I am, and I know how deeply and equally I care for all children.”

A former teacher in New York, Ms Rachel said her work had always been rooted in the principle that all children, regardless of nationality or background, deserved dignity, safety, and access to basic needs.

She added: “That’s the basis of everything for me — children are equal.”


BBC defends Gaza coverage after White House criticism over aid site reporting

Updated 04 June 2025
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BBC defends Gaza coverage after White House criticism over aid site reporting

  • White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking “the word of Hamas with total truth,” claimed the corporation had retracted a story about aid distribution center incident in Rafah on Sunday
  • BBC rejected accusations as “completely wrong,” saying figures were attributed and updated throughout the day based on information from a range of sources

LONDON: The BBC has strongly defended its reporting of a deadly incident near a US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, rejecting criticism from the White House as “incorrect” and denying claims that it had taken down a story.

The row erupted after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during a press briefing on Tuesday, accused the BBC of relying on information from Hamas in its initial reporting of a shooting near an aid distribution center in Rafah on Sunday.

Leavitt also claimed the BBC had retracted a story — a claim the broadcaster called “completely wrong.”

“The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism,” the BBC said in a statement.

Leavitt’s remarks came in response to questions about reports that Israeli forces had opened fire near the aid site. Holding printed screenshots from the BBC website, she accused the broadcaster of changing casualty figures in multiple headlines and said it had “corrected and taken down” its report.

“The administration is aware of those reports and we are currently looking into the veracity of them because, unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth,” she said.

Leavitt’s remarks came in response to questions about reports that Israeli forces had opened fire near the aid site. AP/File

Leavitt listed a series of changing headlines: “We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC, who had multiple headlines, they wrote, ‘Israeli tank kills 26’, ‘Israeli tank kills 21’, ‘Israeli gunfire kills 31’, ‘Red Cross says, 21 people were killed in an aid incident.’”

“And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying: ‘We reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything,’” she said.

The BBC issued a swift rebuttal, emphasizing that all casualty figures were clearly attributed and updated throughout the day based on information from a range of sources — standard practice in any fast-moving situation, especially during conflict.

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 31 people were killed in the gunfire. The International Committee of the Red Cross later confirmed that 21 people had died. Initial reports from local medics cited 15 dead.

The numbers were “always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of ‘at least 21’ at their field hospital,” the BBC statement said.

“Our news stories and headlines about Sunday’s aid distribution center incident were updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources … This is totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story.

“Completely separately, a BBC Verify online report on Monday reported a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution center it claimed to show.

“This video did not run on BBC news channels and had not informed our reporting. Conflating these two stories is simply misleading,” it added.

Witnesses, NGOs and local health officials said that civilians had been shot at while waiting for food at the Rafah aid point. The Israeli military denied these claims and said its forces had not fired at civilians. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed private group overseeing aid distribution, dismissed the reports as “outright fabrications.”

On Wednesday, GHF announced a temporary suspension of its operations in Gaza, citing security concerns. The Israeli army warned that roads leading to aid centers were now considered “combat zones.”

The closure follows a string of deadly incidents that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned as “unacceptable” and potentially “war crimes.”

The information war surrounding the conflict — now in its 21st month — has intensified, with both Israel and Hamas battling to control the narrative.

Independent reporting from Gaza remains limited. Israel continues to bar international media, including the BBC, from entering the territory, forcing news organizations to rely on local journalists, social media and unofficial channels.

Many local reporters are working under extreme physical and psychological pressure and are themselves frequent targets of Israeli airstrikes.

The BBC reiterated its call for unimpeded media access and urged the White House to support that demand.

“It’s important that accurate journalism is respected,” said Jonathan Munro, deputy director of BBC News. “And that governments call for free access to Gaza.”


Houthis abduct 4 journalists, jail another for criticizing leader, says watchdog

Updated 03 June 2025
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Houthis abduct 4 journalists, jail another for criticizing leader, says watchdog

  • Committee to Protect Journalists and local authorities condemn the action, saying it “exemplifies the Houthis’ escalating assault on press freedom”

LONDON: At least four journalists have been abducted and another jailed for criticizing the Houthis’ leader, media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday.

Local reports claim freelance photographer Abduljabbar Zayad, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reporter Hassan Ziyad, Soorah Media Production Center director Abdulaziz Al-Noum and deputy head of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate Walid Ali Ghalib were abducted between May 21-23.

On May 24, the Specialized Criminal Court in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa sentenced Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi t0 18 months in prison for criticizing Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi online.

Al-Miyahi was also ordered to sign a pledge not to resume his journalistic work and to pay a guarantee of SR5 million ($20,500), which he would forfeit if he continued to publish material critical of the state.

Regional director of the CPJ, Sara Qudah, condemned the actions and said: “The kidnapping of at least four Yemeni journalists and media workers and the sentence issued against Mohamed Al-Miyahi exemplify the Houthis’ escalating assault on press freedom.

“We call on Houthi authorities to immediately release all detained journalists and stop weaponizing the law and courts to legitimize their repression of independent voices.”

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate also condemned the kidnapping, calling it an “arbitrary campaign targeting journalists and freedom of opinion and expression.”

A statement released by the organization said: “The syndicate considers these abductions a continuation of the approach of repression and targeting of journalists and opinion holders, and a hostile behavior towards freedom of opinion and expression, holding the Houthi group fully responsible for the lives and safety of the detained colleagues.”

Al-Miyahi has criticized the Iran-backed Houthis in a series of articles, broadcasts and social media posts. In his last article, prior to his abduction in September 2024 and enforced disappearance for more than a month, he accused the group of suppressing freedom of expression and “not respect(ing) people and treat(ing) them like mindless and unconscious herds.”

In January he appeared in court accused of “publishing articles against the state.” The YJS called the trial a “sham (…) where the verdict was read aloud by the judge from a mobile phone inside the courtroom, violating the most basic standards of fair trial procedures.”

The CPJ accused the Houthis, who control Sanaa and govern more than 70 percent of Yemen’s population, of running a “parallel justice system (…) widely seen as lacking impartiality” and argued Al-Miyahi’s prosecution violated Article 13 of Yemen’s press law, which protects journalists from punishment for publishing their opinions.


Israeli army blocks Oscar media tour of villages in West Bank

Updated 02 June 2025
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Israeli army blocks Oscar media tour of villages in West Bank

  • Soldiers bar journalists from visiting Palestinian residents on trip organized by award winners

JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie “No Other Land.”

The directors of the film, which focuses on Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area.

In a video posted on X by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is “no passage” in the area because of a military order. 

Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit.

‘They don’t want the world to see what is happening here’

“They don’t want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,” said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. “It’s clear they don’t want the world to see what is happening here.”

Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. 

Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats have visited the villages in the past.

Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kick-started the war in the Gaza Strip. 

Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks, and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.

Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them.

Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba on Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents’ belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands. 

The military demolished much of the village last month.

“No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. 

The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, another Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, along with Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

The film has won a string of international awards.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. 

The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. 

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.